That article is spot on, take a week off every few months, you’ll be amazed how much more energy you have when you come back!
Muscle Recovery – Take A Week Off To Ignite New Muscle Growth! | MuscleHack
Take some time off
September 2nd, 2008New home for this blog
July 31st, 2008I just changed hosting, this blog new home is now:
http://workout.ihunda.com
What to eat on workout day, especially before and after your WO?
June 30th, 2008There are opposing views on what to eat surrounding a workout. Some say absolutely no carbs, not even in a post workout shake, some advise up to 30 grams of pure glucose (dextrose) plus 60 grams of whey protein to create a huge insulin spike… I think like always, the answer lies in the middle…
You want to lose fat as fast as possible?
Your goal is to lose fat, not body weight, you have to make sure that you are not losing any well earned muscle during that diet. 30 grams of whey protein in a shaker and a banana seems to work very well for me. Banana gives you a good blend of different kind of carbs (fast and slow) as well as much needed vitamins and antioxidant. The whey protein is really fast acting and recharge your blood with amino acids while being converted to glucose by your body if your muscle need more.
No meal in the next hour though as you want your insulin to go back to normal before eating any fat.
This works really well for me, of course amounts of prot and banana must be carefully observed individually. I found myself needing 3 bananas after a really heavy leg workout while still continuing to lose body fat.
You want to gain muscle as fast as possible?
Your on a CKD but your goal is muscle gain, not only fat loss. That means you need nutrients so that your workout is both as intense as possible but still protective of your body as injury/overtraining arrives quicker than anybody thinks.
My tip there, take 10 grams of protein, 30 grams of quick carbs (dextrose) in a shake that you start drinking 10 minutes before your workout and throughout your workout. This makes sure that your body as easily acessible liquid energy during your entire workout and doesn’t need to tap into your muscle stores.
Right after your workout, take 20/30 grams of whey protein with 10 grams of quick carbs (dextrose again) in a shake. That’s just after your workout, not more than 1 hour after or you won’t get any gains.
Conclusion
My experience is that those do not slow down fat loss, they actually help it because your body needs are respected and you become less prone to overtraining which completly kills any kind of diet/exercise program. If you don’t want to go to the gym, feel too tired or lack intensity in your workout, you will drop out pretty fast! So eat a few crabs before, before and after depending on your goals, but do not eat any fat until at least 1 hour after your workout!
Bulking with the cyclic ketogenic diet, ckd
June 27th, 2008The most important aspect about
using the CKD as a means of bulking is to set your calorie level around
20% (25x bodyweight) over your normal daily calorie level. On a similar
note if this causes your calorie level to be too low/high you can
always adjust it to fit your individual needs. The best way to consume
the copious amounts of calories needed while bulking is to eat a high
amount of: steak, chicken, fish, whole eggs, sausage, bacon, and
protein and oil shakes. The best way to set this up is to adhere to the
“ketogenic ratio,” which is some where around 1.5 g of fat for every
gram of protein. Your meal planning should consist of anywhere around
5-10 meals a day, that’s right I did say 10. This is to constantly keep
your muscle cells saturated with the optimal nutrients for growth.
The most substantial
difference with using the Ketogenic diet for bulking opposed to cutting
is the carbohydrates. During the bulking phase I recommend a 36-hour
carb-load, this is to allow a substantial influx of carbs into the
muscle but not to over do it. The next major difference is that you are
to have 1000 calories worth of carbs, with a good amount of whey
protein, approximately two-hours before your Wednesday workout. The
main goal of this carb-spike is to allow the person to have a
substantial amount of muscle glycogen to maintain workout intensity.
Now as far as the
carb-up goes, you can either start with very high glycemic carbs. Then
taper down to lower glycemic carbs. The other route is to eat what you
want. For a hard-core bulking routine this is what most people will do.
If you are going to follow the “eat whatever you can get your hands on”
route definitely try to choose the lower fat route. This means if you
are going to get donuts, try to find the brand that’s lower in fat. But
if you know you can drop the fat off at a relatively fast pace, then go
ahead and get Nesquick and Krispy Kreme and have a fun time! That doesn’t work for me though 
ketogenic diet example
June 24th, 2008A lot of people are searching for examples of this diet instead of just theory, here’s an example of one of my days on this diet:
8 AM Breakfast:
- 2 Eggs or Salmon or Mozarella cheese or 30 g whey protein if in a rush
- 50 grams of Almonds
11 AM Pause:
- 100g strawberry with or without cream (depending on the mood )
- some nuts (almonds, macadamian, brazil) or cheese
1 PM Lunch:
- Salmon or Truit or Chicken or Beef
- Mozarella
- Green Salad
- Greens: spinach / Bussel sprouts / Green beans
- Sometime a few small tomato or heart of palms
4-5 PM Second Lunch:
- Nuts
- Cheese
8-PM Dinner:
- Greens: spinach / Bussel sprouts / Green beans / Broccoli
- Any kind of meat or fish (this meal is at home so I can cook)
- Cheese
10-11 PM Last meal:
- Yogurt with low carb content
- Sliced ham or smoked salmon
That’s on a non workout day, I’ll publish another post with the difference on a workout day (a little bit more carbs after workout).
This proved easy to follow because of the food variety. Everything is whole food, preferably organic, this actually doesn’t feel like a diet to me at all…
From diet to regular eating habits
June 24th, 2008After 2 months on this diet, I feel I have much more energy throughout the day that before, I actually gain muscle and lost fat at the same time. I weight 4 kg more than when I started and lost 5% bodyfat! That’s actually pretty impressive and wasn’t expecting that much. But nobody should stay on a diet for too long, how to make it from the current constraining diet to something healthier that can be kept on for rest of my life?
First of all, what did I learn from this diet?
- Carbs are overrated, healthy fats are really important and should not be excluded at all
- White carbs (fast acting ones) like regular pasta or what we can find in junk foods like candy is REALLY bad for your body balance. Those create an insulin spike that’s really a big fat storage signal to your body and even when eating few calories, I know that my body will get fat from those.
- Eating healthy fats (nuts, fish are the best) actually give you a much longer feeling of fullness so you are less hungry and a feeling of energy that lasts longer that regular carbs
- The best energy for a workout or any really physical activity are carbs, fats are for the long run
How to use that to set new long term eating habits?
- Continue eating low carb but with a more relaxed ratio. Instead of less than 30 grams of carb a day, go to under 100 grams a day
- Never eat fats and carbs at the same time! That’s a recipe for fat storage and extra carb storage as fat
- Eat health slow, low GI carbs like fruits, vegetables, oats, brown rice and pasta
- Avoid all quick carbs like regular pasta, rice, regular bread and candy
- Eat 6 small meals a day so that your body doesn’t think it needs to store energy and spread your calorie intake during the day. Also eat before you are hungry, that’s really really important as when you are hungry, your body reacted before you even had that feeling by sending catabolic hormones…
- Eat low fat, high carbs (mostly from fruits) 1 hour before and until 4 hours after your workout/exercise for maximum glycogen composation (both skeletal and liver glycogen) to have crazy energy as well as allow for maximum recovery. Next to no fat after training due to that elevated amount of insulin from carbs.
- Next to 0 alcohol!
What do I expect from this?
- Continous, steady fat loss and lean muscle mass gain
- High energy all around
- No problem cheating from time to time (business dinner, party) as my body is tuned to be a well balanced fat furnace
I implementing this since 1 week now, I’ll update in about 2 weeks about the results!
Results come from intensity and intensity alone
May 19th, 2008What’s intensity?
For me, it means that at each workout and for each exercise, you reach a point of failure, you just cannot do another rep, your muscles are just plain dead.
For me, it means that at each workout and for each exercise, you reach a point of failure, you just cannot do another rep, your muscles are just plain dead.
Do you reach that point of failure?
Most people think that they do but they actually maybe are not even getting close to it. This is especially true on exercises where it’s dangerous to be in such a situation like a bench press. You don’t want to be stuck with a 100 KG loaded bar on your chest… and this prevents you from going to your maximum level.
This is why you either have to select exercises that allow you to reach that point of failure like pec flies, anything with dumbells, machines or have a partner for more dangerous stuff like squat or bench pressing.
How many reps?
Your weight must be high enough to hit from 8 to 12 reps on each set. If you do more than 12 then you need a higher weight and the opposite if you can’t do at least 8 reps in proper form.
Proper form!
That’s critical, an uncontrolled rep without proper form doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t count and has no value, 8 to 12 quality and controlled reps!
Rhythm?
Yes you need rythm, most of the time, 1 second contraction, 1 second pause at the peak and 2 seconds to go back to start position is right. Do not skimp on the negative 2 seconds (going back to starting position) and contract on that peak!
Increasing difficulty
Keep a log of all your workout and make sure that each one is a little bit harder than the last. This is really import for grow. Say that last time, your last set was 10 reps, this time you need to reach 12, it it was already twelve then you MUST add weight. Muscles only gain when they have new stress else, they don’t have to and they are even more lazy than you!
To be continued…
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Bodybuilding 3 universal rules
May 13th, 2008Bodybuilding is one of those fields were you can find tons of opinions and experts whether online or on paper. This becomes really overwhelming especially because it’s not uncommon to find a good tip and then the opposite from two different but both relevant sources… Hard to know where to start from…
I am not even talking about all the junk articles and bad advertising out there…
I came up with a really simple list of 3 rules that apply to the core of bodybuilding and should never be forgotten, keep those in your mind every time you think of your routine or want to try something new:
I came up with a really simple list of 3 rules that apply to the core of bodybuilding and should never be forgotten, keep those in your mind every time you think of your routine or want to try something new:
- To gain weigth one needs to digest less calories than his maintenance weigth, to lose weigth one needs to digest more calories than his maintenance weigth
- Weigth gain or loss do not equal muscle gain or fat loss, it’s always a mix of water, muscle and fat
- Results come from intensity and intensity alone
I’ll come back to explain those 3 rules in following blog posts.
What do you think?
On a keto diet since 8 weeks
May 9th, 2008I am on a successfull keto diet since 8 weeks now. I want to start recording my next progresses here. I am 28 and I lost 4 kilos in 4 weeks then started to modify my diet to a muscle building one instead of just fat lost on week 4 and I am now 8 kg heavier than when I started but with less body fat percentage…
I feel that I can still do much better on that diet, I’ve been searching on the web and it’s a really good source of information on ketogenic diets but not a lot of examples. This is why I created this page to log my progress!